A Revelation of Rain

Corporeal Form

The weeks passes. Then the months. 

Stephen Strange did what he always did best. He worked. While Tony floated through the Sanctum, moody and aggravated, Stephen spent the bulk of his time in his study. Moving the flesh sample into a growth tank as soon as it was large enough. Checking water temperatures, ph levels, obsessively taking DNA samples to make certain there would be no mutations or defects in the body that his....friend? Former colleague? Rescued essence? ...would soon be occupying. 

Tony was bored. No one except Stephen could see him, so he took to haunting his study and bedroom at all times. When he wasn't watching Holly bathe or hovering on the roof to look forlornly toward Stark Tower in the distance. He hated this. But it was his only shot at regaining any sort of humanity. Being dead was a trial. He couldn't touch anything, feel anything, taste anything. Couldn't sleep. Couldn't interact with anyone but Stephen. 

It was three months since the sorcerer had come to find him in his own home, and Tony was floating beside the wizard's bed at 2 in the morning. Watching him sleep. 

Exhaustion had carved more lines in the man's face than were there a year ago. He had more silver at his temples. And he'd lost a ton of weight. Tony moved around to the other side of the bed and positioned himself mere centimetres above the covers, as though lying beside the sleeping man. He often did this in months past with Pepper when she'd finally fall asleep, but it didn't bring him any comfort. It just filled his whole spirit with sorrow and rage at being unable to touch her. He'd existed in misery, haunting the rooms of his old life in a desperate quest to connect somehow. 

Stephen sighed in his sleep and turned slightly, his face bathed in moonlight now. 

"You know, I'm not always an asshole." Tony found himself saying quietly. Not loud enough to wake the man. Oh hell no, he didn't need the mocking or the snark. Stephen's eyelids didn't even flutter. He was that deeply under. "I want you to know that I see what you're trying to do for me, and I appreciate it. I do. Even though you called me a douchebag the first day we met...you're doing more for me than anyone else ever has. I know you can't hear me. Kind of prefer it that way, since we're being honest with each other here." 

He scooted a little closer, looking down at that handsome, careworn face in repose. 

"This would scare the hell out of you, Doc. But you've got nice lips. I know you probably think I'm all about the ladies. That was my reputation before Pepper, anyway. But I know my way around a man too. Guy like me? I don't draw lines around pleasure. I bet you've never even been kissed by a man. So let me make you this promise right now, while you're passed out and I'm talking to myself. When I finally have a body? I'm going to kiss you. Not a little peck on the cheek, either. You're getting kissed like no breathless little girl with a crush on the big stern wizard has ever kissed you. That's a vow, Doc. But for now? Get your rest. You'll need it." 

Satisfied, Tony rolled onto his back, trying to just relax against the mattress. Of course he couldn't Manifest enough to do so. He sank right through the bed, finding himself a floor below before he could arrest his descent. Being incorporeal was a pain in the ass. He spent the rest of the night floating back and forth in the Sorcerer's study, staring at the growing form in the tank. It was the right size now, but extremely fragile. Every vein and nerve visible, soft bones forming inside the flesh showing right through the thin veil of skin. It creeped Tony out to no end. But the face was his. The hair, softly waving in the warm solution, was the right color. And if that body opened its eyes, he just knew that they'd be brown. 

When Stephen awoke the next morning, his servant was standing near his bedside with a breakfast tray in her hands.